Surrogacy in American male same-sex couples

Of the 594,000 same-sex couple households in the United States, 115,000 have children

In 2014, approximately 37,800 male same-sex couples in the United States had children, most through gestational surrogacy. Little is known about the reasons these couples have for choosing this technique to have a child. A study has now been published (see HERE) that has evaluated the reasons why same-sex couples choose surrogacy.

Most do so because of the genetic links established. Just over half of fathers (55.74%) were satisfied with surrogacy. All this is apart from the objective ethical difficulties that surrogacy entails.

Men with children

There is one group whose incomes are far above the rest: same-sex “married” men with children. Their income is rough $275,000, more than double the pretax income for heterosexual couples and same-sex married female couples with children. This is a select group of people for whom the cost of children is particularly high. Using a surrogate can cost $250,000, and adoptions can cost upward of $30,000.

Of all the ART available to intending parents, surrogacy is arguably the most controversial (Jadva, 2016). Only 19 states in the USA currently allow commercial gestational surrogacy to married same-sex couples and in 15 states it is practiced because no statute or published case law prohibits it (Creative Family Connection, 2016).

Related

The views, opinions and positions expressed by these authors and blogs are theirs and do not necessarily represent that of the Bioethics Research Library and Kennedy Institute of Ethics or Georgetown University.